Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-05-20

quite away, now Is II possible TO he happy
when one feels the breath of human misery
beating on ones face and sees the great tide
of sorrow and suffering creeping up TO ones
feet! One may be on IA rock ones self and
out of the path of it till the spring floods or
the hurricane wave comes to sweep one away,
or one may be afloat upon it; whichever it is,
it is quite impossible, if one has any heart, to
be Indifferent TO it,"
"Then only the Indifferent are happyp
ayes, the Indifferent and the selfish; but,
after ALL it is the same thing; indifference is
the perfection of selfishness."
81 am afraid that there must be lots of
selfishness in the world, for there is certainly
plenty of happiness, all evil things notwith-
standing. | should have said that happiness
comes from goodness and from a sound diges-
tom
Jess shook her head as she answered ~ may
be wrong, but don't see how anybody who
feels can he quite happy in world of sick
ness, suffering, slaughter and death. | saw
Kair woman die yesterday and her children
crying over her She was n poor creature
and had a rough lot, but she loved her life
and her children loved her. Who can be
happy and thank God for his creation when
he has just seen such a thing! But there
Capt. Mel, my ideas are very crude and
dare say very wrong and everybody has
thought them before; at any rate, l am not
going to inllict them on you. What is the
use of it," she went on, with a laugh "what
is the use of anythingl The same old thoughts
passing through the same human minds from
year to year and century to century, just as
the same clouds float across the same blue
sky. The clouds are born in the sky and the
thoughts are born in the brain, and they both
II.
ing MIST and this is the beginning and end of
thoughts and clouds They arise out of the
blue; they overshadow and break into storms
and tears, and then they are drawn up with
the blue again and the whole thing begins
afresh.'
$50 you don't think that one can be happy
in the world!" he asked.
II did not say that never said that. /
do not think that happiness is possible 1t is
possible if one can love somebody so hard
that one can quite forget ones self and every
thing else except that person, and it is pos
| sble if one can sacrifice ones self for Others
| There is no true happiness outside of love and
self sacrifice, or rather outside of love- for it
includes the other That is gold, all the rest
is gilt"
"How do you know that" he asked quickly.
"You have never been in love"
mo she answered, II have never been in
love like that but all the happiness | have
had in my life has come to me from loving.
| / believe that love is the secret of the world
| it is like the philosophers stone they used to
look for, and almost as hard to find but when
one finds it it turns everything to gold. Per
| haps," she went on with little laugh "when
the angels left the earth they left us love be.
hind, that by it and through it we may climb
up to them again. 1t is the one thing that
lifts us above the brutes. Without love man
is a brute, and nothing but brute; with love
he draws near to God. When everything else
falls away the love will endure because it can.
not die while there is any life, if it is true love
for it is immortal. Only it must be true
you see, it must be true
He had got through her reserve now; the
ice of her manner broke up beneath the
warmth of her words, and her usually i'm
passive face had caught the life and ligh;
| from the eyes above and acquired a certain
beauty of its own. He looked at it, and
realized something of the untaught and i'll
regulated intensity and depth of the nature OF
this curious girl. He caught her eyes and
they moved him strangely, though he was not
an emotional man, and was too old to expert
ence spasmodic thrills at the chance glances
| IL
looking at her curiously.
at would he worth living to be loved like
that" he said, moro to himself than to her.
She did not answer, but she let her eyes rest
on his. Indeed, she did more, for she put all
her soul into them and gazed and gazed till
John Mel felt as though he We're being mes
merized And as she did so there rose up in
her breast a knowledge that if she willcd it
she could gain this mans heart and hold it
against all the world for her nature was
stronger than his nature, and her mind, un-
trained as it was encompassed his mind and
could pass over it and beat it down as the
wind beats down tossing sea. All this she
learned in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye; she did not know how she knew IT, but
| she diu know it as surely as She knew that the
! blue sky stretched overhead, and what j.
/ more, he-Ior the moment, at any rate-kncw
/ ii too. !, came on her as a shock and a rcvc-
lation, Ike thcdidings of a great JOY or grief
and for moment left her heart empty of all
things else.
She dropped her eyes suddenly
81 think she said, quietly, that we have
been talking great deal of nonsense, and
that want to finish my sketch"
He got up and left her, for he had to get
home, saying as he did so that he thought
there was a storm coming up, the air was so
quiet and the wind had fallen as it does be-
! fore an African tempest, and presently, on
looking round, she saw him 81 WY climbing
the precpitous ascent to the table land above.
1t was a glorious afternoon, such one
sometimes gets in the African spring, although
it was so intensely still. Everywhere were
the proofs and evidences of life. The winter
was over, and now, from the sadness and
sterility of its withered age, sprang young and
lovely summer, clad in sunshine, be-diamoned
with dew and fragrant with the breath of
flowers, jess lay back and looked up into the
infinite depths above. How blue they were,
and how measurelessl She could not see the
angry clouds that lay like visible omens on
the horizon. See there, miles above her. was
one tiny circling speck 1t was vulture,
watching her from its airy heights and de-
scending a little to see if she were dead or only
sleeping.
Involuntary she shuddered. The bird of
death reminded her of Death himself, also
| hanpiup hiph mn there in the blup and wait